To my mind our politicians have been behaving dreadfully and using the EU as a scapegoat....yet I still voted leave, sounds wrong eh. Thing is I honestly believe the EU will collapse before Westminster or any European nation state. History tells us such empire building always fails. If it was just a trade bloc, it was all about free trade and not about political and financial integration, I would choose remain. The EU has a federal ideology that Europe will never compleyely buy into. It's not just immigration that's driving people into right wing groups, it's their nationalism too. We are taught to be proud of our country, proud of our heritage. It's pushed in schools all over the world. It's so ingrained in us that it's hardly likely to be given up easily. The EU pushing towqrds further integration is causing racism and xenophobia and the rising crime stats across Europe are just adding fuel to the fire. We are better off not being in the EU when it finally explodes/implodes/collapses....take your pick.

"Fedoral ideology" like USA and Australia

You don't fight xenophobia and racism by putting up barriers and borders. You do it by breaking down barriers and building bridges. The history of nationalism has taught us that.

The areas with the least immigration were most pro leave, the areas that have experienced the most immigration were pro remain.

The contradiction of many older leave voters is that they say "they voted for a common market" but now want to leave the customs union and single market.

HI Daniel. I zoomed in on your photo, and couldn't see clearly - but - at this time of year, almost certainly, those lemons are imported from South Africa. They come in on a 0% tariff under the entry price system.

as with all these reports the media is massively at fault for always taking the outlier figures, house prices could fall by up to 35%, GDP could rise by up 7.5%. What both these mean is that these are at the ultimate extremes of probability. less than a 1% chance they will happen. The statistical models will show that the most likely scenario is nowhere near these extremes, the media ignores that because its not news.

To my mind our politicians have been behaving dreadfully and using the EU as a scapegoat....yet I still voted leave, sounds wrong eh. Thing is I honestly believe the EU will collapse before Westminster or any European nation state. History tells us such empire building always fails. If it was just a trade bloc, it was all about free trade and not about political and financial integration, I would choose remain. The EU has a federal ideology that Europe will never compleyely buy into. It's not just immigration that's driving people into right wing groups, it's their nationalism too. We are taught to be proud of our country, proud of our heritage. It's pushed in schools all over the world. It's so ingrained in us that it's hardly likely to be given up easily. The EU pushing towqrds further integration is causing racism and xenophobia and the rising crime stats across Europe are just adding fuel to the fire. We are better off not being in the EU when it finally explodes/implodes/collapses....take your pick.

Let's be honest the EU is far away from being a federal state. It's still basically an intergovernmental organisation. That's unlikely to fundamentally change either. The Council, made up of 27/28 national ministers, is where the real power lies. As the saying goes " the Commission proposes and the Council disposes." As for racism and xenophobia, as Sherpa says, that is far more prevalent in areas of lower immigration. In terms of nationalism being promoted in schools, I remember for Prince Charles' investiture we were all given a little Union Jack and told to wave it when his car went past. That memory is certainly ingrained in me. I shudder everytime I think about it! I can see the demise of the Euro in it's current form. That won't be the end of the European Union though and it would be a mistake to underestimate the strength of the EU as an idea - as the Maybot and her advisors have recently discovered.

It’s more eveidence of how corrupt the EU is and yet you choose to keep quiet on the matter. No doubt the remainers that see this as no big deal were the ones with the most to say during the expense scandal with our MP’s.

Disappointing. The law being an ass again. The parliament president being an ass too by the sounds of it.

“We cannot demand openness and transparency from others, if those principles are not followed within our own institution. Secrecy around MEP’s expenses only damages the image of the European parliament and emboldens Eurosceptics." Well said Heidi Hautala.

Best thing people can do if they genuinely feel strongly about this, is to contact their MEP and raise their concerns. UK ones won't get listened to now of course, but some of us probably live in other member states 👍

Disappointing. The law being an ass again. The parliament president being an ass too by the sounds of it.

“We cannot demand openness and transparency from others, if those principles are not followed within our own institution. Secrecy around MEP’s expenses only damages the image of the European parliament and emboldens Eurosceptics." Well said Heidi Hautala.

Best thing people can do if they genuinely feel strongly about this, is to contact their MEP and raise their concerns. UK ones won't get listened to now of course, but some of us probably live in other member states 👍

I'm agreeing with you, it's a ridiculous position especially in a time of growing Euroskepticism. We should be able to see what they spend their office expenses on, especially if there are claims of "ghost offices". The €300whatever for hotels is neither here nor there as it'd cost more to check, and it's very, very hard to get a place in Brussels/Stras for that amount during busy times (I paid about €380 for a night in the Holiday Inn near the parliament once!). But the rest, we should be able to see it's being spent correctly.

It's really hard to know. He went down a storm apparently, but that's with a bunch of fanatical party supporters, so hardly surprising. These ideas of Labour have something about them (and they are only ideas, no details really as they don't have to present detail - they're not in a position to implement them). But ultimately they're saying the current system is broken and fecks over the many. We'd all agree there. Greater social involvement is a good thing in principle, and what they're proposing isn't that extreme, despite what their opponents say (they're only playing round the edges of communual ownership/benefits).

The important thing is that somebody is prepared to think radically about the state we're in where the rich just get richer, wealth is easily exported and those helping to create the wealth get shafted. Nobody else is doing this. Normally you just get giveaway sounbites to win votes.

But then does it really matter? Was the upsurge in support for Corbyn at the last GE simply because he trounced May in TV appearances? I suspect it was, the same way that the Lib Dems made ground in 2010 off the back of Nick Clegg's storming TV debate. I suspect people want strap lines and entertainment rather than independent thinking and policies.

If Keir Starmer was the Labour leader and there was a GE before next March he’d get in on a landslide.

It’s bonkers that Corbynistas can't see that.

Because Labour voters didn't back leave? How would all the Labour supporters who voted leave feel about Starmer going against their wishes, it's not as simple as you're making out. Labour aren't guaranteed anything, maybe if they actually had a policy instead of trying to be all things to everybody it'd be different. At the last GE the Tories were nothing to many people yet still won. Labour are also suffering ion the polls, as much as you can believe them. A lot of people are sick and tired of Labour AND Tory party politics. Besides, Starmer and Corbyn, McDonnell etc, they are being chancers with this, they are trying to force a General Election and Brexit is their weapon of choice. What if Labour succeed in getting a GE and lose? Could TM claim she has a mandate for Brexit at any price? The situation looks to have perplexed Corbyn as he is a well known Eurosceptic of long standing, so what does he do? McDonnell said the opposite to Starmer, that remain shouildn't be on another referendum vote, just leave with the deal or leave with no deal.